Sen. Smith, Citizen Action look at impact, possible cause for HSHS, Prevea closures
EAU CLAIRE — The closure of two HSHS hospitals and Prevea clinics came only two months after the announcement of a complete exit of the western Wisconsin region.
When looking back, Annie Ippel, a former substance abuse nurse at the L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center, remembers the initial announcement.
“Jan. 22… The nurses and the staff of St. Joseph’s were called to a town hall meeting, and were informed that the HSHS system was closing in this area,” said Ippel, formerly a substance abuse nurse at the L.E. Phillips Libertas Treatment Center.
Ippel spoke at a news conference on Friday morning on her memory and worries about the closure, alongside other nurses, City Council member Joshua Miller, Sen. Jeff Smith (D-Eau Claire) and Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.
For Ippel, working in one of the city’s only detox centers was a way to help recovering addicts in the community as they were coming off drugs and alcohol. As she had to call people and tell them they could not help them anymore while their rehab shut down, she said it was an awful experience.
“That evening, on the p.m. shift, we stopped taking admissions. No more admits could come in and get their help,” she said. “My last day of work was Feb. 2.”
While the loss of this facility measures one area where the region is experiencing an immediate impact, Kraig said there is also a bigger discussion to have:
“How, all of the sudden out of nowhere, can you have two major hospitals and a whole clinic system close without any warning for something as vital as healthcare?”
As a reason why, he said lack of accountability with how little regulation is in the hospital industry in the state.
“It’s not nearly as regulated as banks are, as electric utilities are — a whole number of industries.That’s a surprise to people,” said Kraig. “People assume in healthcare that there will be a lot of rules as to what you can open, what has to be there and what people have a right to have, and that is just not the case.”
Another reason that was brought up was because of the hospital providing services which were not very profitable in the medical industry. Those in turn create a system which Kraig said relies on “size and cutthroat competition.”
Smith also said there is an issue at the legislative level, where he said politics can slow things down and “the legislature has failed to take those basic steps to stabilize our medical system.”
“For over a decade we have refused that Medicaid expansion; the most simple thing we could have done,” said Smith. “And of course, Sacred Heart was the biggest provider of Medicaid patients, and they just couldn’t continue to do that.”
With the press conference on Friday, Kraig said a discussion on the driving cause behind all of this is a conversation that they want to start.
“Everybody has a right to their opinion — that’s fine, but the medical system we have in place has proven to be fragile. We, as a state and as a country, cannot afford to see more closures,” said Smith.
He continued, and said his recommendation for a legislative study group to address this topic was rejected at the end of the legislative session in what Smith described as “political negligence.” He also referenced a comment by U.S. Congressman Derrick Van Orden, in which Orden accused democrats in Wisconsin of making the health care closures a political issue. Smith said the comment made him upset, and played a part in his behavior while on the floor at Tuesday’s legislative session.
Smith continued, and said this should not be a political issue.
“Disaster here has happened, but we must keep this disaster from happening again in Wisconsin. We need to protect our right to have access to healthcare,” said Miller. “We need lawmakers in mass to push back against the hospital lobby, take bold steps and hold hospitals accountable to the communities and patients that they serve.”
